Portals, alongside every phase

Consultant coordination software for architects

Bring your engineers and other consultants into the project without handing them the decisions. They review what you send them and deliver what you ask for, and you still issue every answer and determination.

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The RFI list as a consultant sees it, with an answered RFI whose consultant review is done.

What it does

What Consultant coordination does

Send RFIs and submittals to consultants for review

Send an RFI to one or more reviewers with a due date, or press "Send to Consultant/Other" on a submittal. The consultant writes notes on the RFI, or marks up the submittal in ARK View and picks a recommendation: "Approved", "Approved as Noted", "Revise & Resubmit" or "Rejected". You still write the answer and issue the determination.

Consultant review of PCOs and change directives

Send a Potential Change Order or a whole submittal package to a consultant for one recommendation, and send an issued change directive out for scope reviews, each reviewer with their own scope, such as electrical. On a directive, each consultant answers "Accept", "Revise" or "Reject" with notes.

Track consultant deliverables during design

Consultant Coordination lists each consultant on the project with their discipline and scope. Request a deliverable against a design milestone with a due date, then mark it "Received", send it back to "Revise" or "Accept" it.

Coordination RFIs with your consultants

Ask a consultant a coordination question from their card. It is numbered, for example CRFI-001, and stays "Open" until the answer is recorded under it.

Consultant fees and budgets by phase

Staff with a Finance seat add each consultant's fee on Phases & Schedule and tick the phases they work in; "Phased, matching" splits the fee in the same proportions as your own phase fees. The consultant budget shows whether you are over, under or on budget. Consultants never see any fee.

Consultant input on bids and value engineering

During bidding, send a bidder question or substitution request to a consultant, whose input comes back to you before you answer bidders. On value engineering, a consultant with review access can recommend or reject each item the contractor has priced.

A firm-wide consultant directory

Keep every consultant company and its contacts in one directory, each filed under a discipline such as structural or mechanical. Give a contact access to a project with a role. Each discipline's colour also marks the matching Pull Plan cards.

Consultant coordination on screen

Real screens from the sample firm every new ARK workspace starts with.

The Submittals list as a consultant sees it, with an approved-as-noted structural steel submittal and the Submittal Register.

Who uses it on the project

Your firm: Sends and recalls reviews, writes every answer and determination, requests deliverables, asks coordination questions, sets consultant fees and keeps the directory.
Consultant: Sees the records sent to them, such as a submittal marked "Ready for review", and completes the review with notes and a recommendation. Reads the deliverables and questions asked of them, and their own Pull Plan cards. Never sees a fee.

How it fits

Before: Design management. Consultant deliverables are requested against the design milestones on Phases & Schedule.
After: RFIs. In construction, RFIs go to your consultants for review before you write the answer.
All features in the order a project runs.

What it costs

Construction is $69 per active project, per month, à la carte, and it is included in ARK Unlimited. Contractors, consultants and clients take part free.

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